RiskWise Deep Look™ - Catastrophic Risk Management Program

Is your organisation in the space where number of incidents have drastically been reduced, statistics are looking reasonably good but incidents with serious potential are still occurring? Are you still seeing occasional dangerous indicators and wonder why after all the efforts and expenses on systems, processes and behavioural programs this is still a problem?

Many organisations base their safety strategies on incident and injury 'triangle' models, recordable incident rates or 'zero incident' programs. Those approaches are outdated, very limited in their effectiveness and do not adequately guard against fatalities and other catastrophic events. This often produces specific effects where attention and resources are directed to issues which are most visible but not necessarily the most important.

Various versions of those models describe causative and accumulative effects which have little basis in reality. They simply do not work, especially when it comes to occurrences of fatalities and large complex organisational disasters. Many organisations in various industries and with advanced safety systems have experienced single and multiple fatalities at the time when their safety statistics were at all time low. This tells us that mechanisms of failures resulting in minor personal injuries and fatalities often do not come from the same origin and need to be controlled differently.

When a real disaster strikes, incident investigations often identify two common conclusions:

Critical controls which the organisation believed were in place to prevent failure to occur were not in place (not implemented), ineffective (deficient or dysfunctional) or not followed (not known, practiced or enforced)

Critical controls were in place and effective but have caused other unforeseen effects and consequences which have transferred the risks and contributed to an accident in a new, unexpected way.

Does this sound familiar and applicable in your organisation? If it does, you are not alone. Many organisations of various sizes and maturity levels experience those issues. Management of catastrophic risks is very different from management of 'run of the mill' OHS risks. It starts with the way we think about people, processes and operating environment.

This process involves identification of various business and operating factors as well as building solid and effective defences within the complex interplay of environmental, operational, process, technological and human factors. With our assistance, this process is very much within the grasp of even the smallest organisation. The program has a corporate organisational and practical operational elements, both of which can be customised to suit wide range of industries and business requirements.

At RiskWise, we believe that all potential for harm should be targeted and treated however small, but the control of risks with catastrophic consequences needs to come first, as this is where the biggest value is, both for people and the organisation. We have extensive experience in identifying catastrophic risks and putting in place sustainable management strategies, gained over many years across a range of different industries.

Principal Mining Hazards

Some Australian states such as NSW and Tasmania now require development of catastrophic risks management plans for mining operations – Principal Mining Hazards. Although they are focused on fairly narrow and specific risks associated with surface and underground operations, they represent different thinking on behalf of regulatory authorities in Australia.

The requirement is based on identification of all principal hazards associated with the operations, both individually and cumulatively with other hazards, comprehensive risk assessments and preparation of Principal Mining Hazard Management Plan (PMHMP) for each hazard. It is anticipated that new Western Australian mining legislation, expected to be introduced in 2017 will carry similar requirements, inclusive of requirement for an annual audit of all PMHMP’s.

RiskWise Solution can assist you in taking necessary steps to ensure compliance and effectiveness of your critical control systems and processes